Sale of Gatwick increases BAA losses
28.10.09
BAA has reported increased losses after the sale of Gatwick Airport and on the back of falling passenger numbers. The UK airports operator announced a pre-tax loss of £784.7m for the first nine months of the year, up 51% on its £519m loss a year ago. Passenger numbers were down 2.3% at Heathrow, 7.2% at Gatwick and 12% at Stansted during the period.
BAA lost £225m on the sale of Gatwick, which it said last week it had agreed to sell to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for £1.51bn. The deal is subject to EU competition clearance and is scheduled for completion in December.
Colin Matthews, BAA chief executive officer, said: ‘We have delivered a good performance in line with expectations for the first nine months of the year, helped by Heathrow's continued resilience, higher retail spending by passengers and tight cost control. Our London airports are strongly cash generative and our debt and underlying interest costs are stable.'
‘We are pleased to have agreed the sale of Gatwick Airport and our focus for the rest of the year is on improving efficiency and service standards for our customers, and further reducing costs. The accounting losses we are reporting today reflect non-cash exceptional charges and do not reflect the strong underlying performance of the business.’
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